Arnold Schoenberg (1975) won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 1976, and Sonata Forms (1980, rev. The book's extraordinary scope and depth of musical insight had a major impact, serving to advance a new paradigm of criticism in which questions of style change and musical meaning could more effectively be addressed. Rosen not only deepened our conception of style as a regulative frame for artistic creation, but he also argued that the Classical style was an artistic achievement best generalized from the works of its creators and masters, not from the mass of lesser composers. At that time, the concept of style was in disrepute as implying a collection or taxonomy of surface features. In it, he eloquently and effectively explained what was at stake in Haydn's development and Mozart's and Beethoven's expansion of the Classical styles as a set of artistic principles. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (1971, expanded ed 1997) received the National Book Award for Arts and Letters in 1972. Rosen's scholarly books have become standards in the field. In addition, he has written convincingly as a critic and scholar on literature and art. But he is equally renowned for his scholarly work on Classical and early Romantic musical styles, as well as on the twentieth-century styles of Schoenberg and Elliott Carter.

A concert pianist who studied with one of Liszt's pupils, he has performed to acclaim throughout the world, and he has recorded the major works of the piano repertoire from Bach to Schoenberg. Charles Rosen is a rare genius in an age of specialization.

Charles rosen the romantic generation